


Enhanced Interrogation Methods

by PierceTheVeils



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: F/M, Hypnotism, Interrogation, Masturbation, Mind/Mood Altering Substances, Post-Battle of Batonn, Pre-Relationship, Sex Talk, Talk of Xenophobia, Thrawn can't solve problems like a normal person, Xenophilia, even when that would be easier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27443869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PierceTheVeils/pseuds/PierceTheVeils
Summary: Thrawn is determined to discover why Faro is acting so distant with him.
Relationships: Ar'alani/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo, Karyn Faro/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo
Comments: 21
Kudos: 27





	1. Induction

Commander Faro was hiding something from Thrawn. That much was obvious. Less obvious to the grand admiral were issues of motive, both Faro’s and his own. He didn’t know why her secrecy weighed on him so much, only that it did.

It was odd that she should pull away from Thrawn now. Relations between the pair had been good as of late, especially when placed in the context of how things started. It had taken a long time for Faro to see past her initial disdain for him, but Thrawn had been patient. Once he’d settled into command on the  _ Chimaera _ and led them through several missions, Faro had been forced to accept his talents as genuine. 

Equally important was Faro’s simultaneous formation of friendship with Commander Hammerly, who had served under Thrawn on a previous assignment in addition to their current one. Thrawn was appreciative of Hammerly as both an ally and an officer, and she reciprocated the sentiment. It was thanks to her that Faro had abandoned her cold regard of Thrawn in time for his promotion to admiral.

_ Faro cleared her throat. “It was you who planned this entire operation from the beginning, Admiral sir. The credit for this operation belongs disproportionately on your shoulders.” _

_ Thrawn couldn’t decide which brought him more joy: his recent victory over the pirates or Faro’s final concession to him. He accepted both with grace. _

Now that she no longer resisted his efforts, Thrawn took a more direct approach to guiding her as an officer. Faro had been a competent commander before him. It was Thrawn’s intent that she be an excellent one after him. He found her potential too much to ignore and appreciated the ability to help another warrior come into her own. Thrawn had added his time with her onto an already demanding schedule, but it rarely felt like work to him. Faro understood his perspectives better than anyone else on the ship nowadays. When he was alone with her, Thrawn could see just how much time he wasted explaining himself in other situations. The constant clarifications were an exhausting process that he was happy to forego whenever possible.

Even better, Faro could appreciate art as he did. Vanto had been an exceptional aide in other respects, but it disappointed Thrawn that he hadn’t been able to pass along a love of art to him. Now for over a month, Thrawn had been taking Faro through his private art collection piece by piece after their shifts. Thrawn would introduce the art and invite Faro to form insights about the people who’d created it. She’d required guidance at first, but Faro proved herself to be a fast learner.

_ “Now this piece. A depiction of the Battle of Lessu. What can you tell me about this painting?” _

_ Faro squinted, eyes drawing all the relevant details in as she leaned forward. Her fingers shifted to the texture in the painting’s corners, as if she could actually touch the hologram. “It’s not from Ryloth, even though the Battle of Lessu took place there. The painter… this person was-” _

_ “-is,” Thrawn corrected. “He is still alive.” _

_ “Is… um, Coruscanti?” _

_ “You are close. It is true he studied at the Martus Institute on Coruscant and painted this piece while a student there, but the painter himself hails from Alderaan.” _

_ She blinked. “Sorry, sir.” _

_ “Don’t be. You are making significant progress.” _

Intruding on their art lessons was the Battle of Batonn. With Thrawn’s promotion to grand admiral (and subsequent loss of Commander Vanto), he’d been forced to postpone his time alone with Faro so that he could orient himself to his new reality. Counterintuitively, it was during times when Thrawn and Faro were both busiest that he longed for their leisure time the most. Thrawn could not stop himself from noticing Vanto’s absence, but he would not allow himself to behave similarly regarding Faro. Faro was still on his ship. Longing after her was unreasonable. 

In a fit of emotional imbalance, Thrawn had asked her to resume art lessons with him prematurely last week. He had later commed her to cancel, but Faro had missed his message and sought him out that evening regardless. At the time she arrived, he was in the middle of venting frustration via exercise. She had entered the room without him noticing. Thrawn caught sight of her in the corner of his eye and turned to see her flushed. Thrawn had cause to be sweaty by that point, but what reason did Faro have for overheating?

Thrawn would have asked if Faro had not stumbled out after a stammered apology. Since then, the commander had been overly formal with him and refused to discuss what occurred that evening. His attempts to resume their art lessons for a time when he was prepared were declined, this time on Faro’s end.

It was inscrutable. Thrawn couldn’t think of a single thing he might have done to offend Faro, and she wasn’t receptive to any of his requests to speak plainly. If anything, the latter only made her hold onto regulation more tightly. The whole affair was miserable, it took up more of Thrawn’s time than he cared to admit, and he was no closer to a solution now than he’d been on the night of the incident.

Faro was a soldier. The idea that she would be offended by the sight of physical training was absurd. Yes, Thrawn had done so in his quarters instead of a formal facility, but that alone wasn’t strange. 

He hadn’t been naked. Thrawn knew how taboo the subject of nudity was for humans, and he’d come to accept exercising in his athletic wear as custom over the years. At least he didn’t have to take care of the additional laundry it generated himself. The Empire used droids for such work.

Was the problem that he’d cancelled his plans? Thrawn understood that to be only a minor faux paus in human social situations. He had rescheduled with Faro before and never gotten this reaction from her.

Could it be personal? Something from Faro’s home life unrelated to Thrawn that preoccupied her mind? If so, her odd reaction to him that night was a timely non issue. Thrawn wished he could accept that explanation as true, but it seemed too easy. He would only allow it if Faro herself admitted that was the case.

Not that she would. Faro would no longer discuss anything besides duty with Thrawn. If he hadn’t noticed the absence of time spent with her before, he certainly did now. 

This was ridiculous. Thrawn should be able to talk to her by this point. She and him had served on the same ship together for how long now? He wasn’t a new CO she had to dance around and grow accustomed to. The thought that Faro would treat him that way offended Thrawn.

There had to be a method he could use to coax the truth out of Faro. Thrawn refused to include a third party in his plan. Doing so would only escalate the mystery issue. Instead, he had to approach his objective as an intelligence gathering conversation between only the two of them. An interrogation.

But not an interrogation in the typical sense. Thrawn had no intention of taking his first officer to one of those filthy rooms on the lower level of the  _ Chimaera _ . He had neither basis nor desire to torture her. No, he required other tools for this interrogation.

Alcohol? The option was always available, but Thrawn doubted Faro would agree to drink with him off shift. Her reluctance to do anything with him off shift was part of the problem. Even if he were able to convince her, he predicted Faro would attempt to restrain herself from overindulgence. Normally he found temperance to be an admirable quality, but it did him no favors in this case. Any attempts to pressure her would require Thrawn to ingest, at minimum, an equal amount of alcohol himself. He did not look forward to the hangover that would include, nor did he want his first officer incapacitated the following day. 

Thrawn needed something else. Something with fewer aftereffects that wouldn’t harm Faro in any way. At the same time, it needed to be powerful enough to overcome whatever new resistance Faro had developed towards him.

It needed to be ilia. 

Thrawn drew back, lip curling at the thought. The first time Thrawn had encountered ilia had predated his service to the Empire. Back then, the drug was in use by enemies of the Ascendancy to enslave people. Conquered people ingested such a large quantity of ilia that the scent of citrus lingered in their blood long after they perished from being worked to death. When Thrawn first witnessed the aftermath, he’d vowed he would never stoop to the methods used by such insidious foes.

That was ilia when ingested. It rendered the victim suggestible and unable to form their own will for days on end because of how long it remained in the blood. Since joining the Empire, Thrawn had heard news of ilia being inhaled ritualistically in a cult no longer active. Inhalation rendered the individual suggestible to a lesser extent for a maximum time of three hours, at which point the toxin could be purged from their system by the body’s own devices. The less ilia smoke one inhaled, the less time they would suffer the effects. Furthermore, humans required a lower dose than species with thicker blood-air barriers, such as Chiss. If Thrawn burned only the amount necessary, he could convince Faro to tell him the truth without compromising himself. 

Assuming he could get his hands on ilia at all. The Empire had taken one look at the cult they busted and declared the drug a tightly controlled substance. Anyone caught possessing, growing, or dealing in ilia faced significant legal penalties. How would Thrawn smuggle it onto his ship without detection? 

Not to mention, he still hadn’t answered why it was so important he do so in the first place. Surely Thrawn’s subordinates were allowed to keep secrets. He had enough of his own. So long as no one’s secrets became relevant to how they performed their duty, they weren’t any of Thrawn’s business to know.

But Faro’s secret… it involved him, somehow. Thrawn knew it. Maybe she was aware of a plot to strip him of his new position and wanted to distance herself from the fallout. Maybe Faro thought that by letting Thrawn’s enemies remove him, she would be the prime candidate to take control of the ship. 

Thrawn sighed. And here he’d thought Faro and him were past these ridiculous games. All the more reason for him to interrogate her soon. 

Sneaking banned items through supply was going to be a lot more difficult without Vanto to help him.

* * *

Three days later, Thrawn had everything he needed for the upcoming interrogation. An unassuming candle with a citrus scent sat in his office drawer next to a lighter. The smoke detector settings in the room had been raised for the night. The lights were dimmed to a setting preferable for Thrawn’s eyes. Most importantly, Faro had a one on one meeting scheduled for the end of her shift in this very room, a meeting Thrawn had made certain she couldn’t duck out of. 

Because exhausted minds were easier to overtake than alert ones, Thrawn added a series of long winded, mentally challenging, dead ended tasks to Faro’s workload for the past three days. By the time she reached this afternoon, Faro audibly struggled to regulate her tone with him. Her gestures swung wider and with more aggression than before. Most telling, the rings beneath her eyes had deepened in both color and depth. Thrawn had noticed them growing ever since the night she’d intruded upon him, but his new demands certainly aggravated the issue.

Part of him regretted what he was doing to his first officer. More than affecting her work, Faro’s health seemed to be declining as well. His pressing of her was sure to end after tonight, however. If she would open herself to Thrawn’s advice once again, perhaps he could assist her in recovery.

Thrawn had done more research on ilia since forming his plan. Careful to approach the subject indirectly, Thrawn had gathered vital intel for his interrogation that included how long to burn the candle before he was affected, how long he would have to question Faro once she was, and how he had to phrase questions in order to receive a true answer, not the one Faro may suspect he wanted. She would be far more open to suggestion than usual, so Thrawn had to be careful not to order her to do anything once the interrogation started. 

All he wanted was for her to speak honestly. For him to ask anything else from her would place him on the level of his enemies when they’d handled slaves. Ilia itself was not Thrawn’s enemy, but a tool that could be used in several ways. So long as Thrawn did not use the ilia in a vile way, he would not violate any of his convictions.

Besides, he wouldn’t have to do this if Faro would just be forthright with him. That had never been a problem with her before. Even when she’d disliked him, Faro had tended towards directness in their interactions. Why had that changed?

Just as Thrawn considered possibilities, he heard Faro’s voice at his office door. “Grand Admiral, sir?”

“Come in, Commander.” Thrawn watched as the door slid open. Faro entered with a datapad clutched to her chest, glancing behind as the door closed once more. Ever since that evening, Faro hesitated to be alone with Thrawn.

Time for Thrawn to learn the reasons behind that. He gestured for her to sit across the desk from him, eyes glowing as they locked onto Faro’s. “Your report, Commander.”

“Yessir.” Faro launched into a litany of her best guesses as to why Thrawn had asked her to connect commercial spacecraft production on Corellia with smuggling operations on Lothal. Thrawn gave her credit for creativity, but he suspected even Vanto wouldn’t have been able to find a correlation in that data collection. While Thrawn did care to know about the smuggling, the point of the exercise was to create an acceptable reason for them to meet alone and wear Faro down mentally. He hadn’t expected her to find anything.

Once she was done offering her report, Thrawn decided to let her in on a few parts of his plan. “Thank you for your report, Commander. I’m sure you’re wondering why I had you collect that information.”

Faro’s eyes avoided his as she turned off her datapad. “It… did strike me as an odd request. Even for you, sir.”

“The truth is that the insight I am after is one I cannot acquire directly. I must approach the subject I’m working towards obliquely and from several angles to obtain the information I desire. Your work is providing me with the details I need to investigate each angle. Such a task may not feel particularly fruitful as you tackle it, but I promise it has paid off a great deal for me.”

“I’m glad to hear that, sir. Does that mean your requests for this…” she gestured about, unsure how to phrase her thoughts, “this sort of information are over now?”

“They end tonight, Commander,” Thrawn promised. “You can rest again soon.”

Faro started, hand flying up to the circles beneath her eyes. “Uh- yes, yes sir. I’m resting fine.”

Before whipping out the candle, Thrawn made one last appeal to Faro. “You don’t have to deceive me, Commander. I can see the sort of condition you are in. It does me no good to have my first officer operate at half capacity. Your work is sufficient for the time being, but we both know it can be better.”

“I’m sorry, sir. It’s just… it’s nothing. I can fix it on my own.” Faro leaned back as she apologized, shoulders raised back and towards her neck. If she sat like that regularly these days, her shoulders must be full of knots.

Thrawn wished the tension gone. “If you tell me what is causing you difficulties as of late, I can help you eliminate it. It is in both our interests that you return to top performance.

Faro shook her head, keeping her eyes down as she did so. “That will not be necessary, sir. Thank you for your concern.” She rose up as if to leave.

“I haven’t dismissed you,” Thrawn reminded her. Faro sat back down at those words, if hesitantly. “I don’t have to lecture you about the importance of the work we do on this ship, Commander. You understand that perfectly well. What I need you to appreciate in addition is the importance of taking care of yourself. We both demand a lot from ourselves. The only way such demands can be fulfilled is if we acknowledge our own needs, be they to eat, sleep, relax… anything of that sort.”

Faro nodded, eager to be dismissed. “I agree, sir.”

“Hence why I am going to guide you through one of the methods I know to relax. It’s nothing you cannot do, Commander. I won’t keep you long.”

She drew the datapad back over her chest. “What is it, sir?”

“Put the datapad down, to start. You can lean back now. I acknowledge these chairs are not the most comfortable, but do try to relax,” Thrawn led her though a list of instructions as he pulled the candle and lighter out of his drawer. “I bought this candle recently for its soothing properties. Perhaps you will like the scent as well.”

“It’s new,” Faro observed. She blinked when she realized Thrawn had already said that. “What’s the scent?”

“Citrus. Would you like to smell before I light it?” Thrawn handed the small candle to her. She didn’t take it right away, so he set the candle down in front of her. She picked it up once his hand had retreated. 

The candle’s base was narrow enough for Faro’s fingers to meet as they held it, and short enough that her hand covered the holder in its entirety. She held it up to her nose for a brief sniff. Faro handed the candle back to Thrawn. “I didn’t know you liked citrus, sir. I’ve never heard of citrus being soothing. I think most humans use it to focus better.”

“Perhaps that is the most common application. It certainly isn’t the only one.” Thrawn set Faro’s datapad aside to give the candle a clear space to burn. A slight tremor coursed through his hands as he lit the candle. Thrawn looked up to see if Faro had noticed, but she was distracted by the dancing flame.

“I don’t think candles are regulation, sir.” 

“Never mind that now.” Thrawn waited for Faro to object further. She did not. She just watched the flame flicker in the dimmed lights of Thrawn’s office. “All I want you to do right now is relax. Just lean back and focus on your breathing.”

Thrawn led her through several cycles of deep breathing. Faro refused to comply at first, but exhaustion soon won her over. As he directed the flow of air through her lungs, Thrawn watched for signs that the ilia was taking effect. After a few minutes, Faro’s lively brown eyes glazed over and the last bits of tension left her. Her arms, both of which had rested so firmly on the table, now fell off the side like toppling weights.

Her arms falling caused Faro to start. “Sir, I… I don’t think I-”

“You don’t need to fight it anymore. You’re almost there.”

“But I- I’ll fail the test if I-”

“I’m not testing you,” Thrawn reassured her.

“Then what is-”

“Don’t worry about it.” Thrawn offered her a small smile, one he hoped was closer to a comforting smile than a mysterious grin. “We’ve spent excellent time together in the past. I want to raise you back up to the way you felt then.”

His use of ‘excellent’ was a conscious choice. It was the word of praise Thrawn chose most often on the select occasions when he praised subordinates. Faro in particular was receptive to it.

Faro leaned back, a matching smile on her face. “You want to help me?”

“Yes. Lately, you’ve driven yourself like a speeder bike, one that runs on fumes. I need you to take your foot off the accelerator-”

“Off the accelerator…”

“And steer yourself towards landing. I’m going to direct you towards a safe landing platform. When you get there, all your stress will be gone. Your conscious mind will be fully asleep. The rest of you will take direction from me.”

“You’ll guide me?” Bits of curiosity appeared, then slid off Faro’s face as she inhaled more tendrils of smoke.

“Of course. I need you to look me in the eye. I’m going to count you down from fifteen; with every number, your speeder gets lower in the air and closer to landing. When I reach one, I’ll blow out the candle. When the flame disappears, it means you’ve landed. Your eyes will be open, but your mind will rest. Do you understand?”

Faro nodded. “I do.”

“Excellent.” Thrawn’s grin widened as he counted down from fifteen. With each number, Faro’s eyes grew more and more fixated on his. In that moment, Thrawn felt a force pulling himself towards her. It was as if her eyes drew in the light from Thrawn’s to illuminate her emptying mind. Without thinking, he leaned forward in his chair until his waist caught the desk. 

Perhaps he’d left the ilia burning too long. It was starting to affect Thrawn too. He drew back slowly, trying to sit back without Faro realizing he was getting further away. He didn’t want to do anything that would cause her to struggle against the drug’s effects. Her experience would be more enjoyable if she didn’t fight, but it was hard to convince a soldier of that.

He didn’t mean for his counting to speed up, but it did. No sooner had Thrawn tossed out the number one than the room descended into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This piece uses minor bits of headcanon from four other fics, only half of which are mine. The other two are both from draculard: ilia is a substance he referenced in a memory section of Signal Lost//Contact Regained (GREAT post-Rebels fic if you haven't read it yet) and the Martus Institute is from a oneshot of his titled Because Fuck Savit, Anyway. Credit belongs where credit is due.
> 
> On the subject of the fic itself... I acknowledge this is a strange one. I discovered the hypnosis kink and have been searching for a way to use it in a fic. Thrawn may not be the best choice given his revulsion to how Grysk handle their victims, but he's the one I have inspiration for and have committed to writing a short fic about. Also, this fic could never have happened if Eli Vanto stuck around post-Batonn. He would have been the voice of reason that talks Thrawn out of the whole thing.
> 
> Now that this half is posted, it's back to my more serious WIP. Later!


	2. Interrogation

Thrawn blinked as the candle’s flame extinguished, its light and heat fading together from his vision. When he opened his eyes once more, Faro’s gaze remained on him. With the overhead lights in his office dimmed, Thrawn’s eyes were the most prominent lightsource for her. Her stare would be intense were it not so empty.

Faro had never looked this vacant before. Thrawn swallowed his creeping discomfort for what he had just done. Best to get on with it. “Now that your mind is asleep, I will ask you questions. You won’t have to think about them, and there’s no need to remember what I say. Simply give me whatever answer lands on your lips when I ask something. Do you understand?

She nodded languidly. “Yessir.”

“You don’t have to call me that right now.” Thrawn had to watch his words here. He didn’t want to say anything that would remind Faro of her identity as a soldier lest it trigger her acute sense of protocol. If she didn’t see Thrawn as her commander, she may be more open with him.

“Okay. What should I say instead?”

“That doesn’t matter.” Thrawn dismissed the question, surprised by how easily Faro let it slide. “How do you feel right now?”

“Good. I haven’t been this loose in... weeks.” Faro hesitated when she tried to recall how long it had been. She broke her gaze with Thrawn until he asked her to resume it. “I… I like the feeling. I guess I don’t really mind your trance candle.”

“You were aware of my candle’s properties?” Thrawn asked.

“I think so. I think there’s a cult that uses those candles. The Empire found the cult and put people in prison for running it. I read the article years ago. It gave me nightmares about some terrorist using a candle on me so I’d betray the Empire. Then I’d go to prison too.” Her brow furrowed as she recited the story. “But what are the candles called? I forgot.”

Thrawn didn’t want to dismiss all of Faro’s questions. “Ilia. The substance that gives you this feeling is ilia.”

Faro frowned, then shrugged. “I thought it was something else… Okay.”

Perhaps there was another name for it in the Empire. When Thrawn first encountered the drug, the Ascendancy knew it as ilia. He tried to remember the official Imperial name for the substance, but it didn’t come to him. He hadn’t needed it to smuggle some onto his ship, so what did it matter?

Speaking of what mattered… “You used to be afraid of entering an ilia-induced trance, yet you barely struggled with me. Why are you more cooperative now?”

“Because I know you’re not a rebel. You had nothing before the Empire found you. Vanto told me you were abandoned by your people and would have spent your whole life alone if the Empire hadn’t shown up. You love your job because you don’t have anything else in life, and aiding a rebellion would mean you lose everything a second time.” The words flew off Faro’s tongue with ease. “I also want you to trust me. I know you wouldn’t drug me if you thought a normal command would work, so you must not trust me enough for whatever it is you want.” Faro pouted as she spoke. “I wish you trusted me. I know I blew my chances when we first met, but I’m trying to impress you.”

Thrawn blinked at Faro’s approximation of his motivations. Her assumptions regarding his loyalty to the Empire were fair given the information she had. If most of his soldiers thought like her, Thrawn was in good shape. When it came to her more specific assertion, however, Faro overlooked a few key details. “You think my mistrust of you is why you’re here?”

“Isn’t it?” Faro tilted her head, expression unguarded in its confusion. “You wouldn’t drug me otherwise. Whatever you want, I’m here. I’ve surrendered.”

“You have,” Thrawn admitted. “It was easy to overtake you given your recent exhaustion. Why has your health been suboptimal as of late?”

“Stress.” Faro’s mouth said she wanted to continue, but her vocal cords disagreed. Her voice caught off after one word.

Thrawn let his eyes bore into hers, offering Faro a chance to continue. She twitched, but her expression remained placid. He would have to deepen her trance if he wanted the full answer. “I am aware you’ve had much on your mind, but that part of you rests now. When your mind is asleep, the remaining tension you carry is a weight on your subconscious. One you can feel on your shoulders, your chest, your legs…” Thrawn watched as Faro reacted to his suggestion. Her body remained limp, but now it was pressed into stillness. Not a comfortable predicament at all. “It may not be painful, but that weight is preventing you from relaxing fully to me. If you let me lift the weights away, you would feel even better.” 

He smiled at her again. It had an encouraging effect on Faro when he smiled at her on the bridge. It ought to be the same here. “Do you want to feel better?”

“Yes.” The world slipped out faster than ‘stress’. 

Thrawn widened his grin at her answer, triggering an anomalous flash of heat across Faro’s face. “Then I need you to cooperate with me. The words that rise to your lips at my questions are the weights floating to the surface of your being. Every time you give me your unabridged, uninhibited answer to a question, I lift one weight off your person. This continues until all the weights are gone. Then you will feel entirely weightless and perfectly relaxed. Do you want to feel weightless?”

“I do, yes.” Her nods took on a desperate edge. “Please. I’ve been wound up for weeks.”

Thrawn returned one of her nods. “Your shoulders are incredibly heavy right now. I see how the weight lingers.”

“They are. Please, si- um. Please help me.” Faro’s eyes begged him for relief, giving Thrawn an unexpected sense of satisfaction.

Or maybe not so unexpected. Thrawn did care for his subordinates. He did everything he could to make sure they saw him as a calm, fair, steady hand leading them to victory. When his crew trusted him, they performed well on duty and rested easily off shift. Faro turning to him for help bore a passable similarity to that dynamic, if not an exact one.

A direct approach hadn’t worked, so Thrawn took a detour from the knowledge he desired. “What do you normally do to relax?”

“It depends. Sometimes I go to the cantina with Hammerly. Vanto used to come too, but he’s gone, so we’ve been inviting the new commander. Woldar, that is. But I don’t do that a lot because I don’t want to get drunk all the time. I never drink much when I’m there. Sometimes I do work out after shift, but not as much as I should. And when I lay down to sleep, I… I-” her throat caught on the answer. Thrawn prompted her to continue. “It’s embarrassing to tell you about.”

“Nothing you say is embarrassing right now. It’s your mind that normally decides what should be kept inside. That part of you is fast asleep, remember?”

Faro remained concerned. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Completely sure,” Thrawn reassured her. He felt himself leaning towards her again and had to pull away once more. This interrogation did not require close proximity. He needed to stop behaving as if it did.

“I-” her voice escaped as a whisper. “I touch myself. Not every night, but more often than not. It- I haven’t been with anyone in a long time, and it’s easy to fall asleep after I… finish.”

Thrawn needed a second to interpret that. Touch herself? What was so embarrassing about brushing a hand against her own arm, or stroking her own leg, or-

Oh, the sex. It was a sex thing. Humans referred to masturbation as touching oneself at times. They devoted so much of their language to the topic of sex that Thrawn was never able to keep track of all the terms. “That isn’t unusual. You don’t have to hide details like that from me. Not when you’re in this state.”

“Really?”

“Of course not. It’s completely natural. I know not every culture discusses self-pleasure openly, but it’s exceedingly common, especially for soldiers on deployment.”

Faro bit her lip. She didn’t act like a weight had come off her chest. “I’ve been trying to stop, but it’s such a habit when I lay down to sleep. I feel like I’m fighting myself every night.”

Thrawn’s shoulders drooped. If this was why Faro’s physical state had been suboptimal lately, he almost wished he hadn’t pried. “Why are you attempting to stop? Has the practice stopped being beneficial for you?”

“There’s that, yeah. I don’t like having addictions. I’ve kicked my caf habit before. I can kick sex too.”

Thrawn had no idea what humans defined as a sex addiction. He knew of men from his time on the  _ Blood Crow  _ who had used their privacy in the shower every day to expel semen. He assumed such men existed on the  _ Chimaera  _ as well. It didn’t sound like Faro was anywhere near as fond of her fingers as these men had been. Even if she was, why would it be a problem? Female humans made less of a mess than males did in orgasm. Cleanup couldn’t be that much of a hassle.

Well, the ilia wouldn’t last forever. He might as well ask. “Why do you want to expel this particular habit from your routine? Why now?”

“I… liked to imagine things when I touched myself. Lately, the things I’ve pictured have been um, unhealthy. Perverted. Wrong.” Faro squinted her eyes shut and shook her head. “So I’m quitting.”

“I’m confused. Don’t all sexual activities require some amount of perversion?” How far did Thrawn want to dive into this? Was he on a tangent or his way to the truth? Each passing statement made it harder to tell.

“Not like this. Ever since I walked in on you exercising, it’s crossed a line.” Faro’s eyes bulged in distress. “I can’t- I shouldn’t think of you like that. It’s not right. But every time I try to remember something else, I just circle back.”

Oh, so this did have something to do with Thrawn. He’d been correct after all. Still, he wanted to make sure he understood Faro correctly. “That night, when you departed my quarters in a hurry after our miscommunication. What went through your mind in those moments?”

Faro gulped. “Well at first I was just impressed. Some senior officers let themselves go once they get a high rank, but you must score great on your PT exams. Then I felt bad because I don’t train as intensely as you do. That got me thinking about how you’d definitely beat me in a sparring match, which made me imagine how I’d feel pinned to the ground underneath you. And the way it made me feel is… not what I expected.” 

Thrawn furrowed his brow, then undid it when he saw it caused Faro alarm. The downside of having a tranced Faro fixate on his eyes was her intense reaction to any emotion he conveyed. For once, Thrawn was not grateful for how well Faro understood his mannerisms. “How did you expect to feel in that hypothetical?”

“Ashamed of myself, especially if you won quickly. Maybe scared too. I saw how intense you got.” Her eyes shone with a layer of water over the corneas. 

“I would never intend to frighten you if we fought together.” In a case like that, Thrawn wouldn’t be sparring only to win. He would be more interested in how Faro approached the challenge and looking for ways she could improve her abilities. “You shouldn’t be concerned I would harm you.”

That did not assuage her. “I wasn’t frightened at all. I  _ was _ ashamed, but not for the right reasons.”

She was talking around the subject. How she still did that in a deep trance that rewarded her for telling the truth was beyond Thrawn, but no matter. He would pry the truth out of Faro yet. “Why were you ashamed, then?”

Faro tried to keep the words in her mouth again, but they all spilled out at once. “Because I thought being forced to lay under you was hot. I knew it was wrong, so I left. But then when I laid down to sleep at night it just… it got worse.” 

Well. That did explain why Faro’s behavior had changed around Thrawn. She felt her perception of him had entered inappropriate territory, so she acted overly formal to compensate. “That is why you have no wish to be alone with me.” 

It wasn’t a question, yet Faro answered like it was. “Yes. Seeing you like that made me question my motives for why I did anything else with you. The truth is… I never cared about art before I met you. I still don’t. I’m sure your… method helps you think about strategies, but there’s a good chance I’ll never use it myself.”

Her comments about art were unexpectedly hurtful. “You didn’t wish to study art to improve as an officer. Why did you agree then? To pacify me?”

“To get close to you. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at first, though. I thought I stared at you because you’re an alien from a race I’ve never heard of, not because you’re…” she swallowed, “handsome.”

She said that like a condemnation. Like it was the worst thing she could possibly think about Thrawn. He felt his own throat tighten at the thought. “I am attractive by most every standard of the word. What does it matter if you’ve noticed?”

“Because… it’s never going to happen. Because my taste in men is terrible. The last man I was with thought the ideal date was flying as recklessly as possible with me in the passenger seat of his ship. He didn’t even let me copilot.”

Thrawn raised an eyebrow. “Was he a pilot himself?”

Faro nodded. “A squadron leader. He threw a hissy fit when he found out I was being promoted above him, so we broke up. I don’t know what he’s been doing since. He transferred before you arrived.”

Something didn’t make sense about her story. Faro’s command post on the bridge crew limited her interaction with the  _ Chimaera’s  _ various pilots. Her promotion to commander may mean she ranked above this man, but it didn’t place her in charge of him. Thrawn failed to see how abuse of power accusations could arise from this arrangement. The Empire was strict with their protocols, certainly, but they didn’t regulate across crews.

Perhaps it was simpler than that. Perhaps this pilot disliked the way his companion’s career had eclipsed his own. Well if he’d cared so much, he should have put more effort into flying effectively than he did denigrating the achievements of others.

“Have you had many relationships with insecure, egotistical men?”

“A few,” Faro confirmed. “After the last one, I knew the navy would always be my greatest love. I want what I want and I can’t make allowances for a man who can’t keep up.” She sighed. “Most of my relationships start when the two of us are on equal terms, or I’m just behind him. It’s only a competition if the guy wants it to be; if the man I’m with advances before me, I don’t get angry. But the second I pass him, I must have been using him to get ahead or cheating the system somehow. It’s ridiculous.”

Thrawn considered Faro’s new revelations in context with her statement of arousal from before. A striking similarity emerged. “You’re attracted to power. In all its forms.”

“That’s one way to say it.” Faro shrugged, though her shoulders folded in when she finished. “Most people just call it ambition.”

And so the conflict was clear: Faro wanted ever greater power for herself, but the only men capable of catching her interest were those who could overpower her in some way. Her personal goals meant that even if she started with a man powerful relative to her, his power would diminish over time in relation to her own, thereby reducing his appeal. If the man she’d attracted held matching preferences in that he wanted a powerful woman who would submit to him, then he would see her ascension in military rank as a threat to his dominance. Then it was only a matter of time before one of them ended the relationship. More likely the man would in this case; existential threats tended to express themselves faster than a mere loss of interest.

Thrawn could see how Faro’s relationships would be prone to arguments, but they weren’t as terrible as she made them out to be. “Your past experiences have made you unwilling to act on any attractions you may feel.”

“Yes. That, and you’re an- you’re my commander. I get accused of cheating the system enough as it is. Anyone who heard me proposition my commander would assume I did it for a promotion, not because I’m actually interested in you. You might even think the same thing.”

Would he? Perhaps at first, but not for long. Thrawn believed Faro should have a good enough understanding of his leadership to know that he recommended subordinates based on the work they did, not anything that occurred off shift. He failed to see how promoting someone in exchange for sex was any different from doing the same thing for political favors, and Thrawn despised the latter practice. He hated the way politicians had been able to interfere with the careers of Thrawn’s allies and could not in good conscience behave a similar way.

That said… it was odd to hear someone like Faro confess she was attracted to him. Thrawn had fended off his share of honey traps during his Imperial days. If the women expressing interest in him hadn’t been his enemies (or agents thereof), they tended to be like the collector he’d met three months ago at an art auction in that they only wished to sleep with Thrawn for the sake of posterity. Taking the only Chiss in the entire Empire to bed ought to be a novel experience by this woman’s estimation, and she was nothing if not a collector of the novel. Needless to say, Thrawn refused to humor her fetish.

Thrawn sighed. He was doing a poor job of keeping his interrogation on track. “Are those all the reasons for your changed behavior as of late?”

“Yes. I thought my imagination running wild that night was just a one time thing. We all get intrusive thoughts sometimes. They don’t represent our true selves. But the idea… it never went away. It changed settings sometimes. Maybe some other details would shift. The constant was always you… on top of me and moving for a full occupation, which I would… surrender to.” She pinched her face in disgust.

Thrawn tried and failed to stop his mind from imagining the same thing. In doing so, he returned to Faro’s original scenario, the one in which he had just pinned her to the ground in a sparring match. Both their heartbeats would be elevated, and her rapid exhalations would be hot on his face. He would see Faro’s cheeks flush, first from exhaustion and the embarrassment of defeat, then from their physical closeness. 

Upon realizing how their bodies were touching, her pupils would grow wide. Thrawn would not have harmed her in their duel, only subdued her. Thrawn would linger above Faro longer than their duel required, shocked by how pleasant her form felt against his own. Subduing an enemy in battle or tending to one who was injured… those were the only times Thrawn had felt the body heat of another being over the last decade. 

Faro was not Thrawn’s enemy. She was not injured or unconscious. Not since joining the Empire had he touched someone for as long as he was holding her now. 

He ought to mind. He ought to pull away and allow Faro to return to her feet. Then he could continue as normal and lecture her on how to improve in hand to hand combat. He ought to be a good commander, one who didn’t put his personal needs ahead of the mission.

Thrawn did none of those things. Just once, he allowed himself to be selfish. He shifted his weight further onto Faro and captured her lips in his own. Faro sighed into his mouth, indulging his recklessness with every bit of ground she ceded. The process moved quickly from there, encouraged from the bottom every bit as much as it was mandated from the top.

Did this imaginary scenario appeal to him? Certainly not. Thrawn ignored the flares of heat from a part of his own body. He shifted his gaze up a fraction to keep contrary evidence from reaching his field of vision. 

One matter that surprised him was how vividly he remembered the ways of pleasure. One of Thrawn’s bitterest regrets about leaving the Ascendancy was leaving his longtime companion behind. He knew terminating their relationship indefinitely was the kindest thing he could do under the circumstances, but he secretly wished she went about her days thinking about him just as much as he avoided thinking about her. Because any thought of sex called the shadow of his lost companion to the surface, Thrawn relegated all his memories of the subject to a dusty corner of his mind. 

It was for the best that he did so. Upon first arriving on Coruscant, Thrawn had come to the conclusion that no one he met in the Empire would be an acceptable replacement for the woman he’d left. There wasn’t a being alive more who could more perfectly be his partner than Admiral Ar’alani.

As he grew busy with his duties as a soldier, Thrawn didn’t think of her as often as before. He wasn’t sure when he’d stopped comparing every female soldier he met to her, but he’d had to lest they all fall short in his estimations of them. Until this moment, Thrawn had never consciously weighed his conception of Faro against his memories of Ar’alani.

The comparison remained unfair, but Thrawn noticed a few key similarities. Most of them arose in the eyes of the two women. The women’s eyes may not resemble each other in color or shape, but both possessed a depth that seemed to see people and situations for what they really were, not the superficial attachments people placed upon them. To eyes such as those, Thrawn was not just a commander to impress or a cadet to defend, but the layered microcosm that Thrawn encountered himself every time he attempted introspection.

The power of that insight was what had drawn Thrawn to Faro in the first place. He believed that ability made her an officer worth encouraging, one he would be glad to see advance in rank. He hadn’t thought there was anything else buried in his intentions.

A horrible thought crossed his mind then. He could tell Faro to sate her curiosity while she was still in trance. She wouldn’t have a clear memory of it, but a sense of satisfaction would remain long after the ilia left her system.

Two words, and those full, parted lips would rest on his. Thrawn knew she would do it. He knew she would do a lot of things if he asked her to now.

He also knew that he would never forgive himself if he allowed their time together to go beyond interrogation. If Faro ever grew wise to what Thrawn had done, their relationship would shatter beyond repair. Thrawn would never be able to help her become the officer he knew she could be. Helping Faro here would only harm them both in the long run.

To Thrawn’s embarrassment, some of his intentions conveyed themselves without words. Faro asked, “are you going to kiss me?”

Thrawn shook his head soundly. “Not when your mind is asleep. If I were to kiss you, every part of your body would need to allow it.”

“Oh.” Her chin lowered a fraction. “My brain will never say yes. Once I get my thoughts under control, everything will be back to normal. I promise.”

“You can’t control all your thoughts. Not perfectly. No one alive has mastered that ability.” At least, Thrawn never had. Despite his best efforts.

“You think so?”

Thrawn nodded. “Even so, your control over your behavior is better than most soldiers I’ve encountered. I don’t think you need to restrict yourself so drastically in dealings with me. You may not remember telling me when this is over, but what you have confessed will be no secret within yourself.”

Faro rested her chin in one hand. “I just don’t get it. I’ve never been attracted to an alien before. It’s not right. I don’t know how humans can feel this way. Why would any species seek out sex with another if it has members of its own to copulate with?”

Thrawn hadn’t been sure if their conversation would reach this territory, but he should have predicted it. He’d never had a specific problem with Faro, but he was no stranger to soldiers from her homeworld. Kohmbra had a disproportionate presence in the Empire’s military and was uniquely unabashed in its ideal of creating a “human paradise” superior to everywhere else in the galaxy. Any other sentients who once roamed the planet had either been deported or exterminated seven centuries ago in campaigns their art celebrated. Only humans had the right to live and work on their planet today, and interspecial unions were banned from existing in both practice and media.

Despite those prevailing tenets of her native culture, Thrawn knew Faro was proud of her home planet. He’d never discussed Kohmbran culture with her before lest it breed conflict between them. He ought to avoid addressing it now. “What is there not to understand? I’ve seen our fellow men admire Twi’lek dancers on numerous occasions. Their appreciations are not aesthetic in nature.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it too. I asked Commander Nerric about it a few days ago. I know he has some holovids of… that.” Faro gestured towards Thrawn with her other hand. “He said something about a mix of the familiar and exotic being what people liked. All the important parts for sex are the same from a human to a Twi’lek. The parts are just blue… or green, or, um, orange. It’s different enough to intrigue, but not so different that sex can’t…” she swallowed, “ _ technically _ happen.”

But it  _ shouldn’t _ happen, or so went the implication. Thrawn didn’t miss it. He didn’t appreciate the stinging sensation it left in his heart, nor did he acknowledge it. “Nerric’s interpretation of purely sexual desire is a possible one. Do you ever act on pure lust or idle fantasy?”

“Never.”

“Then you have no reason to concern yourself. The drivers of your behavior lie beyond what images your mind conjures for you to consider before losing consciousness.” Thrawn forced his facial muscles to soften despite the newfound pain he was in. “I trust you to make sound decisions. You should trust your own control. Whatever you need to do to release tension at night is nothing anyone ought to be worried about.”

“But… the problems caused by your species-”

“There is no problem with my species. The problem lies within you,” he interrupted her, tone harsher than intended.

Faro shrank back, eyes flickering back to life. Thrawn relaxed himself first, then talked her back into a sedate trance. Once he had done so, he said what he’d meant to say before, “if all that concerns you are your sexual curiosities, acting alone in your quarters is a safe way to explore them. When one is frightened of a possible threat, it can grow beyond proportion in their mind. I think you are letting your anxieties loom larger than they ought.”

"You think so?”

“I do. If all you are worried about is attraction, then those sensations are fleeting. They don’t lead to lasting companionships. For the rational minded, they won’t have the power to lead you into a wrong decision.” At that, Thrawn leaned back once more in his seat. “You have nothing to fear.”

Faro nodded at his reassurances, but didn’t fully accept them. He hadn’t succeeded in bringing her to weightlessness, it seemed.

Thrawn wished he could. He wished he could rub every wrinkle of tension out of her body until the skin was smooth under his fingertips. Smooth, inviting, and eternally warm. He could see her warmth now, the way it radiated out from below her abdomen in a way that suggested…

In a way that suggested nothing that was his business. Thrawn could see the intelligence returning to Faro’s eyes. He knew she would be awake soon. “If those are all your fears, then you may close your eyes. When you wake, your mind will be alert once more. You’ll be ready to face your anxieties head on. No longer will you need to deprive yourself of sleep or step skittishly around me. You will be free to return to your art lessons so they can make you a better commander. Do you understand me?”

Faro nodded, eyes already drifting closed. Thrawn didn’t have to say much else to prompt them. He watched as his first officer slept off the last effects of the ilia. When she woke in earnest, she may discover a mild headache or slight dizziness, but nothing that wouldn’t disappear the next morning. One exposure to ilia did not leave humans with lasting symptoms of any kind. Hence why Thrawn used it.

Now that the wax from the candle was cool, Thrawn put both it and the lighter back in his drawer. He turned the overhead lights back up to half brightness, the way he had it most often when Faro visited him alone. Nothing but the faint smell of citrus remained from their interrogation.

He was reading reports on his datapad when Faro came back to full consciousness. She started when she realized where she was. “Sir?”

“Good evening, Commander.” He put his datapad down. “I suggest you finish your rest in your own quarters.”

“What happened?”

Thrawn offered a shortened version of the truth, “I noticed you had been resting suboptimally as of late. Since insufficient rest causes one’s work to suffer, I thought to offer you a remedy. As I was describing to you a way to relax, you fell asleep in your chair.”

Faro shifted back and forth, embarrassed. “I wish you had woken me, sir.”

“I had no pressing need to do that. My recent demands are part of the reason your health has declined. I look forward to your full recovery, Commander.” Thrawn caught her eye one last time. He wanted to know if his suggestions would lead to anything. “Will you be able to rest tonight, Commander?”

Faro opened her mouth with one answer, then paused to consider another. She shifted once again, thighs rubbing against each other in a way that made her freeze with her eyes wide. She reached furtively for her own datapad. “I… I think I will.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Thrawn smiled innocently, as if he knew nothing of what was going on. “You are dismissed, Commander.”

“Thank you, sir.” She left as quickly as she could without running. 

Not that Thrawn wanted to stick around either. He had some self examinations he wanted to complete tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was more difficult than anticipated to write. I knew what I wanted to include in it, but I didn't know the order of events. I shifted sections around more than once before I arrived at this version of the interrogation. It's still not everything I imagined, but it's serviceable. I want to move on.
> 
> Despite my frustrations, I still hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for reading and for all the feedback you've provided!


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